EDMONTON — While the Montreal Canadiens have given their rookie defenceman P.K. Subban a dose of tough love, sitting him five times this season, the Edmonton Oilers Taylor Hall has played all 58 games.

There have been no healthy scratch nights, like another highly-rated rookie Tyler Seguin in Boston, who’ll be here with the Bruins on Feb. 27. He’s sat for four games.

“There was one game this year (Carolina, 8:47 ice-time) where Taylor had to get acquainted with the end of the bench,” said Oilers’ coach Tom Renney. “That’s the closest I’ve come (to not playing him to making him a scratch). I can’t, for a minute, think of a time other than that once where I thought of putting him in a seat in the press box. Taylor brings a high level of hockey sense every night.”

The 7-2 drubbing in Carolina on Nov. 9 was the only time Hall’s had less than 10 minutes ice-time. The second lowest was 12:19 against Nashville on Feb. 7. In only three other games (Columbus, Oct. 28, 13:27; Florida, Oct. 10, 15:22; and Vancouver, Jan. 7, 15:30) has Hall been under 16 minutes. He’s averaging 18:21.

Habs bring baggage

Montreal Canadiens’ equipment manager Pierre Gervais is one of the few remaining guys who took part in the outdoor game here against the Oilers in November, 2003. He remembers packing so much they were prepared for everything short of a tornado.

Same story in Calgary, on Sunday, in the second Heritage Classic. He’s got Canadiens’ toques for the players, but probably not for the actual game like Jose Theodore here in 2003, when he wore his on top of his goalie mask — a strange but endearing fashion statement.

“I don’t think the rules allow that any more because it’s an extra headpiece. They see it as an advantage,” said Gervais, who is loaded down with gear for the three-game road trip, here, the outdoor extravaganza and the windup in Vancouver next week.

“Fifteen extra bags,” said Gervais. “The first time (Edmonton) our fear was the weather. We didn’t know what to expect. So we brought everything, including those Hotshots so the guys could wear them under their gloves. I thought sticks would break and skate blades would break here because it was so cold, but they didn’t. But we’re prepared for everything in Calgary. We’ve also had to bring both sets of sweaters and socks, white (here and in Calgary) and they want us to wear red in Vancouver.”

Many Montreal fans

As usual the Rexall Place crowd was chock full of Canadiens’ jerseys for practice.

“The Montreal fans are unbelievable. They almost make it a 50-50 for the Canadiens, anywhere they go,” said Oilers’ captain Shawn Horcoff.

“I love playing all the Canadian teams in our rink, especially the Eastern Conference ones because we don’t get to see them very often.”

There weren’t a lot of Paul Mara jerseys, however, in the crowd, though, after the Canadiens brought back the 31-year-old late Wednesday night. Mara played 42 games in Montreal in 2009-10, needing late-season shoulder surgery, then he signed as a free-agent in Anaheim during camp when Toni Lydman was experiencing double-vision.

As some of the Hab players joked it was like Mara went out for a long lunch and now he’s back. It only cost the Habs a fifth-round draft pick, the one they originally got from Anaheim a few months back in the Maxim Laperiere trade.

The much-travelled blueliner (six teams, 714 games) had been a designated sitter in Anaheim for weeks, only playing two games since December, but he is a big body and should help their injury-riddled (Hal Gill, Jaroslav Spacek, Josh Gorges, Andrei Markov) back-end.

jmatheson@edmontonjournal.com